MEMBERSHIP AND CODES

Rebecca

Wise Children

By:
Angela Carter

Narrated by:
Tracey Ullman

Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
88

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
81

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
79

Angela Carter's last book,
Wise Children, was written and published whilst she was dying from cancer, in 1991. Transcending her physical deterioration in admirable fashion, Carter made this a most life-affirming novel, in support of the vitality of 'otherness.' This Audible exclusive production, expertly read by Tracey Ullman, stands in celebration of a legendary author known for the richness of her imagination, wit and feminist insight.

Bottled joie de vivre

A calssic book with classic narration perfect duo

Overall

5 out of 5 stars

Performance

5 out of 5 stars

Story

5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 01-11-18

I have read Wise Children many times and listened to an earlier audible version which I thought could not be superseded. Tracey Ullman has truly done this book justice. An incredible listen to Angela Carter as always at her best.

The Trick to Time

By:
Kit de Waal

Narrated by:
Fiona Shaw

Length: 9 hrs

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
63

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
59

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
58

Penguin presents the audiobook edition of The Trick to Time by Kit de Waal, read by Fiona Shaw. Mona is a young Irish girl in the big city, with the thrill of a new job and a room of her own in a busy boardinghouse. On her first night out in 1970s Birmingham, she meets William, a charming Irish boy with an easy smile and an open face. They embark upon a passionate affair, a whirlwind marriage - before a sudden tragedy tears them apart. Decades later, Mona pieces together the memories of the years that separate them. But can she ever learn to love again?

Simply beautiful

The Most Painful Joy I have Read In A While

Overall

5 out of 5 stars

Performance

5 out of 5 stars

Story

5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 17-07-18

Incredible story and narration. As a nurse who trained in the 1970'6 I had experienced what happened in the novel from the perspective of a student nurse and had acted in the same way as the student nurse depicted in this novel (much to the annoyance of my superiors). I am still practicing as a nurse and listening to this book made me think how much my ability to defy the authority of a senior helped a mother to spend time with her child who had died. What an incredible novel sensitive to grief on so many levels though engaging, interesting and very perfect. Made me weep

My Absolute Darling

By:
Gabriel Tallent

Narrated by:
Alex McKenna

Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
328

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
307

Story

4 out of 5 stars
310

At 14, Turtle Alveston knows the use of every gun on her wall; that chaos is coming and only the strong will survive it; that her daddy loves her more than anything else in this world. And he'll do whatever it takes to keep her with him. She doesn't know why she feels so different from the other girls at school; why the line between love and pain can be so hard to see; why making a friend may be the bravest and most terrifying thing she has ever done; and what her daddy will do when he finds out....

So grim

Brutally Astounding

Overall

5 out of 5 stars

Performance

5 out of 5 stars

Story

5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 13-07-18

What a book. I found the narration superb. Not a book for anyone looking for a romantic slant to anything. I liked Turtle very much. Whilst I would not have wanted her life I would not mind some of her talents in regard to survival.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

The Walworth Beauty

By:
Michèle Roberts

Narrated by:
Jenny Coverak

Length: 12 hrs and 10 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
13

Performance

4 out of 5 stars
13

Story

4 out of 5 stars
13

2011: When Madeleine loses her job as a lecturer, she decides to leave her riverside flat in cobbled Stew Lane, where history never feels far away, and move to Apricot Place. Yet here too, in this quiet Walworth cul-de-sac, she senses the past encroaching: a shifting in the atmosphere, a current of unseen life. 1851: and Joseph Benson has been employed by Henry Mayhew to help research his articles on the working classes. A family man with mouths to feed, Joseph is tasked with coaxing testimony from prostitutes.

Wonderful story

I Did Try To listen To The Whole Book

Overall

2 out of 5 stars

Performance

2 out of 5 stars

Story

2 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 13-07-18

To be honest I was not gripped or impressed. I did not particularly like the narration and maybe that put me off. I was hoping to be enthralled and I just got very bored with the story. Disjointed (I can usually do disjointed very happily) not quite up to the mark, a could do better.

The Great Alone

By:
Kristin Hannah

Narrated by:
Julia Whelan

Length: 15 hrs and 1 min

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
125

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
113

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
113

Alaska, 1974. Untamed. Unpredictable. A story of a family in crisis struggling to survive at the edge of the world, it is also a story of young and enduring love. Cora Allbright and her husband, Ernt, a recently returned Vietnam veteran scarred by the war, uproot their 13-year-old daughter, Leni, to start a new life in Alaska. Utterly unprepared for the weather and the isolation, but welcomed by the close-knit community, they fight to build a home in this harsh, beautiful wilderness.

Outstanding

How a community failed to safeguard a child

Overall

3 out of 5 stars

Performance

5 out of 5 stars

Story

2 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 01-07-18

There were so many times in this novel when this girl could have been protected from harm it is unbelievable. Her mother may have lost the plot but there were teachers, friends ( written as, as strong women!!) who knew exactly what was happening and intervened intermittently and failed this girl on so many levels because her father (and mother) were truly bonkers. I am glad I do not live in Alaska. Not because of the weather, the hard living conditions, remote living or any other difficulty from the environment but because all those so called supportive neighbors (who often very forcefully voiced their concerns) did not get this girl out. The novel was ridiculous in its plot, disjointed and disappointing.

Mother Land

By:
Paul Theroux

Narrated by:
Jefferson Mays

Length: 23 hrs and 19 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
18

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
17

Story

4 out of 5 stars
17

Everyone in Cape Cod thinks that Mother is a wonderful woman: pious, hardworking, frugal. Everyone except her husband and seven children. To them she is a selfish and petty tyrant, endlessly comparing her many living children to the one who died in childbirth, keeping a viselike hold on her offspring even as they try to escape into adulthood. Welcome to Mother Land: a suffocating kingdom of parental narcissism.

5 out of 5 stars

Narcissism and dysfunction make for a great novel

Fabulous a must read

Overall

5 out of 5 stars

Performance

5 out of 5 stars

Story

5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 16-01-18

I am sure you will be reminded of your own mother and your own family at some point during your listening . I thought of the similarities with Joyce Carol Oates, We Were the Mulvaneys and the family angst when listening to Motherland. Paul Theroux has a huge genius in making me feel very guilty and then making me laugh and feel no guilt about my own Mothers Death

Sugar Money

By:
Jane Harris

Narrated by:
James Goode

Length: 12 hrs and 35 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
28

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
24

Story

4 out of 5 stars
24

Martinique, 1765. Brothers Emile and Lucien are charged by their French master, Father Cleophas, with a mission. They must return to Grenada, the island they once called home, and smuggle back 42 slaves claimed by English invaders. While Lucien, barely in his teens, sees the trip as a great adventure, Emile has no illusions about the dangers they will face. But with no choice other than to obey, he sets out with his brother on a reckless venture.

4 out of 5 stars

Amazing Naration

Amazing Naration

Overall

4 out of 5 stars

Performance

5 out of 5 stars

Story

4 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 16-01-18

As a huge fan of Jane Harris I was a tad disappointed with the end bit. I think maybe I shall read the book to see if I can get a different perspective. The Narration was just superb I think I was mesmerized by listening to the story rather than fully understanding the plot.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Elizabeth Jane Howard

A Dangerous Innocence

By:
Artemis Cooper

Narrated by:
Eleanor Bron

Length: 15 hrs and 26 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
49

Performance

4.5 out of 5 stars
42

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
42

Elizabeth Jane Howard (1923-2014) wrote brilliant novels about what love can do to people, but in her own life the lasting relationship she sought so ardently always eluded her. She grew up yearning to be an actress, but when that ambition was thwarted by marriage and the war, she turned to fiction. Her first novel,
The Beautiful Visit, won the John Llewellyn Rhys prize - she went on to write 14 more, of which the best-loved were the five volumes of The Cazalet Chronicle.

Fascinating

A life story well told and well narrated

Overall

5 out of 5 stars

Performance

5 out of 5 stars

Story

5 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 24-07-17

I have read most of Elizabeth Jane Howard’s novels and found all of them well written, intricately put together, incredibly funny and enjoy the way in which Howard has the skill to describe the complexity of relationships. Artemis Cooper’s biography has led me to believe that Howard wrote Novels that were based almost identically on Howard's life experience. An incredibly sensitive, thoughtful and well researched biography that I would recommend to anyone to read. The book left me slightly disappointed in Howard herself as a person. I so wanted her to be a woman full of confidence in herself as a woman and a writer and she was not.

The Book of Ebenezer le Page

By:
G. B. Edwards

Narrated by:
Roy Dotrice

Length: 21 hrs and 26 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4.5 out of 5 stars
38

Performance

5 out of 5 stars
28

Story

4.5 out of 5 stars
29

Ebenezer Le Page, cantankerous, opinionated and charming, is one of the most compelling literary creations of the late 20th century. Eighty years old, Ebenezer has lived his whole life on the Channel Island of Guernsey, a stony speck of a place caught between England and France yet a world away from either. Ebenezer himself is fiercely independent, but as he reaches the end of his life he is determined to tell his own story and the story of those he has known.

Listen You Will Not Be Dissapointed

It is a life lived and very well read I cant explain it all but you will like it

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

The Virgin Blue

By:
Tracy Chevalier

Narrated by:
Laurel Lefkow

Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins

Unabridged

Overall

4 out of 5 stars
45

Performance

3.5 out of 5 stars
21

Story

3.5 out of 5 stars
21

This is the compelling story of two women, born centuries apart, and the ancestral legacy that binds them. Ella Turner tries hard to fit into the small, close-knit community of the French town that she has moved to. She even changes her name back to Tournier, and knocks the rust off her high-school French. However, isolated and lonely, she is drawn to investigate her Tournier ancestry, with heart-wrenching results.

3 out of 5 stars

Performance very uninspiring

Not a good book

Overall

1 out of 5 stars

Performance

1 out of 5 stars

Story

1 out of 5 stars

Reviewed: 05-09-16

I have read/listened to all Tracy Chevaliers book and all but this novel have been superb. This one is awful the story is not good and made worse by the most dreadful characters imaginable. Ella is the most ridiculous pathetic woman with no substance what so ever. Ms Chevalier is usually able to give an unpleasant character some substance as part of an unfolding story but Emma was just a boring fool who needs to get a grip.